Teach us, dear South Africans, black, white and colored, how yesterday’s enemy becomes today’s partner. How to drive away the fear, erase the hatred, atone for the injustice and create new justice.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- When Adam Habib enrolled at the University of the Witwatersrand, he needed government permission: Habib is "colored" and the Jo'burg university was white. That was some 30 years ago. Next month Prof. Habib will begin his new job, vice chancellor of the university that barely admitted him as a student. The position is equivalent to university president in Israel. Habib's...

Look around our neighborhood. Syria where Al Qaeda is on the move and
the killing of 100,000 people over 2 years doesn't bother these radical
leftists as much as a few dozen Palestinians terrorists and maybe
civilians being killed by as collateral damage in Israel's legitimate
acts of self defense. Look at Egypt where the Coptic Christians are
toast or Saudia where a self anointed royal family rapes the world and
oppresses women, gays, and non-believers. Look at Iran, the Shiite
garden of Eden where gays get capital punishment and wacko Mullahs
oppress everyone in sight and put out international death sentences
against aothors and cartoonists. Look at arab Sudan which perpetrates
genocide killing millions (yes millions) of black Africans animists,
Christians and even Muslims (since the Arabs are the most racist people
on earth). Yes stay obsessed with little Israel as the world's great
evil bogeyman and rot in your own hypocrisy and lies. We in Israel will
continue to develop one of the greatest success stories in history and
contribute to science, medicine, technology, arts, agriculture, energy
etc. while living in the greatest democratic success story since 1776,

This column is deeply flawed, in that, as always, Israel is the one to
blame. Israel must invite the Palestinians in as the National Party did
for the ANC. The most telling difference, is that the ANC always called
for an open, pluralistic society with no discrimination based on race,
creed, religion etc. (see the ANC'S Bill of Rights). The Palestinian's -
even the moderate Fatah - have made it clear that no Jew is welcome in
any territory controlled by it. If the Palestinians were to adopt a
similar Bill of Rights, peace may stand a chance - till then, you
comparison is a non-starter.

with all due respect Mr.Levy, as an ex South African, it appears that
you have a very limited understanding of what apartheid SA was like, and
even less understanding of what post apartheid SA is. You certainly
would not want Israel to resemble either in any way

Israel's racism is unlike South African racism of the old regime and
unlike U.S. racism. In South Africa and in the U.S., under slavery and
post slavery, it ,was the color of an individual's skin that permitted
him to be seen as inferior and worthy of being slaves. The majority of
blacks in the U.S. were Christian like their masters, but being
Christian was not a pass to equality. Racism of this kind is a form of
materialism, but in Israel racism is religiously based---if you are not
a Jew you are other, a gentile---"not one of us." Furthermore,
the other is the real or potential eternal enemy---historically, they
are the persecutors, the anti-Semites---they under any circumstance
cannot be trusted. The Holocaust is the marker in Jewish history that
explains why gentiles are forever suspect, and Israel is the fortress of
the Jewish people; in its absence the Jewish people would surely perish
at the hands of those others. This collection of ideas have a name:
Zionism. It is under Zionism that Israel became a state, but at a cost
that it appears will be unending in light of the fact that Israel is not
in sync with the integrating and universalizing processes straining to
create a more humane, healthier world environment for all of humanity.
Therefore, I do not believe Israel under the present conditions is
capable of making a South African transformation. Such a feat if
accomplished would mean the end of Zionism.

The so called 'unbreakable bonds' between the USA and Israel make it
easier for Israelis to ignore international opinion and acts as an
enabler for Israeli intransigence. Apartheid SA didn't have this
disadvantage. And agreed, it did have great leaders - people like
Mandela and de Klerk don't come along that often.

I find it so interesting that there are so many who want to kill the
messenger and do not want to listen to the message. Gideon Levy is one
of the few messengers of truth in Israel. Kudos to him and to Haaretz.

Israel is not apartheid and Arabs and other minorities have always
attended the same universities. Levy is yet again being paid by Ha'aretz
to lie. He is an unapologetic anti-Israel propagandist whose track
record speaks for itself. Levy is a liar - there is no apartheid in
Israel. Nobody in Israel looks at South Africa today with jealousy.
With apologies to South Africans - your country is a mess and needs
decades of work to repair it. For example, we in Israel don't want
stupid leaders to tell us that there is no AIDS problem. Levy, however,
wants to turn Israel into South Africa? Levy and Hass continue to be an
embarassment and an anchor around the neck of the remaining Ha'aretz staffers.

Levy is far worse. Simply, he's a liar, inviting Jew haters from all
over the world to bash Israel. He's the Zubin Mehta, conducting all the
bigots worldwide to revile his nation. He's far, far worse than a creep.

No dealing with the vision Gideon paints, no discussion or constructive
criticism of the substantive issue....just pure vitriol dripping with
adhominem attacks on the writer. It says much, much more about the
validity of Levy's piece and the dearth of rationality and morality in
the respondees (to describe the latter more kindly than they deserve)
than anything I could write.

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